Serious takeover talk

The group will not be on the shareholding register of the club as a result of this deal, but are believed to be investing a sum around the eight-figure mark.

It will be used to boost the club’s recruitment and academy structures, as well as the Stadium of Light and other infrastructure.

The investment will be made initially into the club’s holding company, Madrox Partners. Stewart Donald will remain the majority and controlling shareholder of that company.

FPP Sunderland are, Methven said, ‘investing in our management of the club’.



It leaves the current ownership structure of the club in place, with Methven holding 6%, Donald 74%, and Juan Sartori 20%.

Sartori has been a less visible and regular presence at the Stadium of Light in 2019 having launched his political career in Uruguay.

He has just this week been elected as the country’s youngest ever senator, but Methven said he is ‘very engaged’ and will be a more regular visitor in the coming weeks and months.

“Juan is in the first stages of his first political career in Uruguay, but he will here on a much more regular basis going forward,” Methven said.



“He, Stewart and I put a substantial extra chunk of money into the club before this investment a few weeks ago, he is very engaged in the future direction of the club.

“He’s speaking to us two to three times a week at the moment and I think people can expect to see him an awful lot more going forward.”

The deal brings to a close months of uncertainty at the club, with various investors coming forward at some stage for talks.

Methven said Sunderland would now be able to build for the future under Donald’s stewardship.



“The deal that we’ve signed is for FPP Sunderland to invest a very substantial sum into our management of the club,” he said.

“Really it’s to embark on phase two of the rebuild of Sunderland, having had a gruelling 18 months stripping everything back to ensure there’s no wastage anywhere.

“It’s now time to start building again. We’ve always been clear that would require a bit of investment, from our very early interviews and podcasts, and we said that it was no good suddenly looking for it when we needed it.

“We needed to be ahead of the game and the good thing about this is that it will enable us to do the things we know need to be done to take Sunderland to the next level.



“This is about the medium to long term things that need to be put in place for Sunderland to reach its potential,” he added.

“There’s a large scouting network now being put in place by Tony Coton, including substantial numbers of scouts in this country, Scandanavia and elsewhere.

“There’s going to be substantial investment into recruitment in the academy, and things that are hopefully going to be able to take the fan experience to the next level in terms of infrastructure and there’ll be an announcement in the near future on what that looks like.

“Basically, the investment will allow us to run the club in a measured, strategic way.



“It’s easy to underestimate how many clubs outside the Premier League are living hand-to-mouth and one month to the next, it makes it very difficult to plan strategically whereas this development enables us to plan and do things properly.”

Phelan, Platek and Fuhrman all attended games on Wearside as they weighed up their options and carried out extensive due diligence on the club.

They had for some time being looking into the possibility of investing in European football, identifying Sunderland as a club with significant potential for growth.

Their long-term plans past this initial investment remain to be seen but Methven says it is a ‘significant’ injection that gives the club ‘strategic certainty’.
“Our agreement is confidential and I wouldn’t want to speak for the investors on that [long-term plan], but obviously this is a very large sum of money for an investment outside the

Premier League and will enable the club to have strategic certainty for the next couple of years,” he said.

“It’s a very significant cash injection at any level outside of the Premier League.”

*Methven discusses the deal, how the money will be invested and recent changes at Sunderland AFC in more detail in tomorrow’s Echo

 

Thank phuckin God for that
It only took 11,400 posts

 

Well that worked!

RR mentioning Dell? That would be huge. Hopefully the details clarify they actually have shares in the club, would be mint even if it's only taking on Sartoris 20% initially

 

https://www.sunderlandecho.com/spor...stment-deal-take-sunderland-next-level-824189

 

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Anybody know if this account is kosher?

 

Hmm can someone make sense of it- no shares have exchanged hands but its just money?

 

Your not being negative were used to be bigged up to be let down, I honestly thing it's gone by the way by now.

 

I’m not whoever that is, this is the first time I’ve ever used a forum haha

 

Oops

 

Can only be a loan surely? If you give money to a company you'd either expect shares in return (which it sounds like they aren't getting) or you'd eventually expect your money back, with interest, a loan.

The key thing is how this loan is structured. If we have to pay it back with money then, in theory, they might never have anything further to do with the club. That seems an unlikely end game though, they hardly need to operate as a bank. The alternative is that maybe it can be paid back in shares later (or money, they could choose). That way they don't take any initial risk, they'll get their money back. If we do ****, they eventually get paid back and bugger off. If Donald makes it work he'll need more investment so maybe we go up and are valued at £50m and he gives them £10m worth of shares (20% of the club) to pay off the debt, and that then enables them to invest further. That's my reading of it anyway, hope an official statement clarifies

 

Sweet. Sounds like it's going to be on the same lines as their Miami team pumping money into the academy and improving the pies at the stadium. Major scouting network being set up as we speak.

I reckon if we could spend on the team to take us up they'd do that but there's not a lot they can do on that. We could chuck a few quid in for sure but it was never going to be anything daft.

 

Cheers for all the info @Smug in Boots you can have a well deserved rest now.

 

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Sort of pleased but also feel a bit deflated. Was hoping they were gonna take over or at least own a part of the club.

 

Just got an alert in the Costa Del Sol. At last

 

Barely got the words out

 

My opinion is that what happens next depends on our performance under Donald and Methven. If they do well, they’ll be kept on as the investment increases. If they do badly they’ll be given the heave ho. Just an opinion based though.

 

My post was not aimed at you. I was enquiring about mhardysports in the link you posted.